Gladstone industry leaders unite for improvements

GLADSTONE's industry leadership group is going through a health check to sustain its direction looking towards the future.

While results from a survey will be presented to the board next month, new chairman John Abbott has seen the value in the collaborative partnership.

Although the major established industries in town have their own processes and procedures, Mr Abbott said as a strong, united tool GILG has been able to evoke change and improvement in their collective interests.

Mr Abbott, NRG Gladstone Power Station general manager, said from discussing water and air quality in its early days to ensuring stability and recruitment during the LNG construction, GILG continues to serve a number of purposes in and for industry.

"I'd like to think as a group we identify emerging issues and we can respond together," he said.

"We prefer things to be stable with slow growth, but having new projects in the town - and only time will tell what is delivered with the three (LNG) plants - but hopefully that would create different support industries that would help us.

"I've never seen Gladstone, through one of these cycles, come down below the baseline of what it was before."

He said the group wasn't just networking for the general managers, but a selection of sub-committees that meet to discuss and share experiences relating to a number of topics including safety and community relations.

"One of the values of GILG is the networking where we share and leverage off each other's experiences," he said.

"If all of us see a collective issue we may choose to address it together."

He said the HelloGladstone website, sponsored by GILG, as a key initiative used to combat the difficult recruitment period when some employees were defecting to the island projects.

"Our involvement in things such as the hospital board, are somewhat peripheral to us, but we have an interest because good hospitals and education are the top two most important factors in terms of recruitment."